air brakes

Anybody ever used air brakes on the back of a kite? Does it work? I know I have to connect them to the inner whiskers, but should I connect the third point to the Center T or the tail end? I am making air brakes for my DEsire by DEsignkites, so I need some advice.

I have flown the Jam Session Millennium at 6Bft, with the brakes placed between the whiskers. Didn't liked the feeling of that flight, as the sail made strange stretching noises....

Barry Zoet schreef:

I have seen another type of brake that attaches between the tow points and the flying lines. Haven't tried them so can't say how well they work.

Before you buy.

In one of the two books, stuntkites 1 or 2, I remember a square piece of fabric attached between the lines and the bridle, It looked pretty strong and doesn't put any stress on your kite, maybe you should check out these books. Good luck!!

keep on kiting!!! Jordi http://home.wanadoo.nl/jordi.krello

Ever tried Fuzzies? Dirty great fluffy things attached to the flying line. Look good and no stress to the kite frame.

writes

Yes, I have but rather than a triangular brake I used a long rectangular brake like a wind tamer. I attached the ends to the whiskers on each side and let the brake hang down in a continuous curve, behind the kite across to the other whisker. I found it worked well, more effective than the same brake attached across the tow points.

What I *think* was happening is this - as the kite gets faster there forces pulling back on the brake are greater... if that pulling back is to the rear of the kite it's pitching the nose back which will decrease speed and hence pull. If the brake is across the tow points then I suspect there is a tendency to pitch the nose forward, whilst this is swamped by the effects of the brake, I suspect the pitching forward (which would otherwise speed up the kite and increase pull[1]) is undermining the effect of the brake.

Also I found that whereas it could be more difficult to get out of a stall on the edge cleanly with a brake on the front, the brake on the back didn't screw up the low speed handling so much. However, although this brake was effective I found that I was breaking a lot of whiskers. I now use fuzzies and find them convenient and very effective.

[1] Accepted that if you bring the nose far enough forward you will start dumping air (luffing?) and the pull will decrease, but the kite starts to be pretty unpleasant to fly.

I've had a play with brakes, both the 'Nappies', an oblong net that sit in line between bridle points and flying line - didn't like those, the kite's still pulling like hell, and it's the brake itself thats the drag, found it killed tricks. and with 'Waa's' by Carl Robertshore, a triangular web between top and bottom spreader on each side of the kite - like those, the kite itself is slowing, and it doesn't impar the flying charactoristics as the 'nappy' does.

There is another way that The Imaginagy Kite Co. tried out, a triagular net on top of the kite(!) that sits in the gully of the centre spreader, v. effective and didn't impair the performace. these were a prototype that I played with, and with the Waa's were great in v. high winds. Just remember they tried it out first (I believe).

Look at www.airdynamics.co.uk and their set of brake packages. The one similar to the one you're describing is the Back Brake and attaches to the base of the spine and one set of standoffs.

With any form of brakes you can _seriously_ mess up the performance of your kite if the drag is in the 'wrong' place (this seems to vary, kite to kite). I've generally had good results with brakes on the front of the kite, from standoffs to base of spine. See the Airdynamics site again.

There is a difference between making the kite withstand higher wind speeds and genuinely expanding a kite's wind range.

Good luck in trying. (I think there's something at Aerialis as well about brakes)

[snip]

Yes, you're right Mike. Check out http://www.aerialis.com/dual/airshield.shtml for the details!

Best Winds! Sven A.